The present invention relates to devices for correct application of plaster or cast dressings to treat fractures and dislocations. As used in this application, the term "plaster dressing" is to be construed as synonymous with "plaster cast".
Owing to the plasticity of plaster of Paris, dressings made of this material are indispensible in clinical practice, particularly for treating fresh fractures and dislocations. However, proper application of plaster dressings is a complicated technical procedure calling for a great deal of skill and experience. Such dressings are almost always applied in hospital emergency rooms by young doctors or technicians on duty who rarely possess the skills required to apply dressings properly. Given their lack of experience, most plaster dressings thus applied feature one or more of a range of drawbacks. Sometimes dressing defects are so serious as to give rise to additional complications: skin irritation and lesions, bedsores, pinching of vessels or nerves, contractures stemming from an incorrect position, and many others. Thus, almost half of all dressings must be reapplied or corrected within a few days of the original application, causing further trauma to the injured tissues, creating an additional psychological burden on the patient and adding to the doctor's workload. But even reapplication of a dressing is no sure safeguard against complications, particularly in children and old people. Most of such complications arise as a result of contracture and irritation of soft tissues due to contact with dry plaster at the dressing edges.
Considering that plaster dressings are applied by the millions in all hospitals and that serious complications resulting from application errors run into tens of thousands, there is a great need for an improved technique of plaster dressing application which would represent an important advance from the viewpoint of both medicine and economics.